Shakespeare is not easy to perform. From its archaic language, to its dense material and heaps of characters, it’s not something I would usually expect to be performed well at a high school level. When I sat down to buy my ticket for Drama Club’s Friday Nov. 22 night performance of “King Lear,” I didn’t know what to expect. I mean, this play is obviously not an easy feat.
To cut to the chase, it was a hit. And if you missed it, I feel bad for you.
The plot of “King Lear” follows an old king, slowly descending into madness dividing up his lands between his three daughters. In his manic state, he banishes his youngest daughter, who loves him the most, and instead gives his land to his two eldest daughters, who plan to deceive him.
The set for this play was a lot different than the standard auditorium setup for most of Drama Club’s productions. It was set up like a black box, so the audience was on stage with the actors.
Drama Director Kristina Ferencie has made this choice in the past and believes it’s the best style for Shakespeare productions.
“In the [auditorium] you’re a minimum of 20 to 30 feet away if you’re in the front row,” Ferencie said. “[Shakespeare’s] language is hard enough…if we add now that extra 20-30 feet you lose detail in the face and you lose the intimacy. [Black box] lets [the actors] be a lot more expressive here…We can be a lot more intimate and expressive and it just helps the audience so much.”
This setup was a genius move in my opinion. Like I said before, Shakespeare is dense. This choice allowed the audience to be closer to the action, allowing for a greater relationship to the actors and understanding of what actually was happening in the play. It felt like you were actually sitting in England in the eighth century BCE, watching a catastrophe play out before you.
Senior Jaliyah Sims, who I attended the performance with said she liked how the play was set.
“I thought [the play] was very immersive and interesting,” Sims said. “It smelled like I was inside the play.”
The set also had a working waterfall. The waterfall worked extremely well in the scenes with the storm but at some points it was a bit distracting. It was hard to hear the actors, especially when they had long speeches, because of the noise of running water. But overall, I loved the choice of the waterfall. It really helped immerse you in the setting.
As soon as the actors got on stage, I immediately noticed the background characters plotting, talking in secrecy to each other setting up the betrayal that occurs later in the play. The subtle facial expressions and movements add a ton to the plot. No matter where you’re looking, you could tell something is brewing.
Now, the star of the play was undoubtedly The Fool, played by sophomore Tessa Silverberg in the production I attended. SHS’s production made the artistic choice to make The Fool a representation of King Lear’s insanity, not a real tangible person that the other characters could see.
“It is clear in the dialogue that The Fool represents [King Lear’s] sanity,” Ferencie said. “The choice that we made was…making The Fool dead from the beginning of the show. Once Lear leaves towards the end of Act Two, The Fool is left on stage and it is really representative of his total break with whatever sanity is left. So now, The Fool becomes something like a Greek chorus that the audience gets to watch through the show.”
This choice helped depict the plot as it was developing. The Fool would walk around the stage, crossing out the names on the family trees as characters past. If the language was confusing to some, you could look to The Fool as a way to somewhat get an understanding of what was unfolding.
What did I love most about the play? Well, the depiction of King Lear’s descent into insanity was the best part of the show in my opinion. The way the production worked together to depict this from the ‘weather’ from the special effects crew to the degradation of Lear’s attire throughout the show, it was definitely captivating.
“Lear was a huge challenge,” Ferencie said. “I’m so glad that we undertook it because we found a lot of things that I never anticipated finding, and it was a great time for all of us.”
This show was definitely a hit. Make sure to stay tuned in with the SHS Drama Page and check out the Evening of One-Acts and the spring musical.
